Resurgent Fabrice Lapierre has claimed a spectacular silver medal in the men’s long jump at the world championships.

After several indifferent seasons and a switch of coach last year to American Dan Pfaff, the 31-year-old Lapierre produced his best jump of 8.24m in the final round on Tuesday night to claim Australia’s first medal of the Beijing world titles.

Just as he did to Mitchell Watt three years ago in London, Britain’s Greg Rutherford stole some of an Australian jumper’s thunder by claiming gold with 8.41m.

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Jianan Wang of China took the bronze with 8.18m.

Lapierre moved into the silver-medal position with 8.20m in the penultimate round and improved again with 8.24m on his final jump.

He lay on his back after completing his final jump with his hands over his face.

Lapierre’s golden year came back in 2010, when he won the world indoor and Commonwealth titles, set his PB of 8.40m and also produced an astonishing wind-assisted leap of 8.78m at the national championships in Perth.

But this result will only confirm the belief of the enigmatic Lapierre that the best may still be yet to come as he sets sail for the Rio Olympics.

In other Australian action on Tuesday night, Australian Dani Samuels finished sixth in the women’s discus with 63.14m – her best result at a global major since her shock gold medal at the 2009 world titles in Berlin.

Samuels was consistent rather than spectacular at the Bird’s Nest on Tuesday night, with five of her six throws falling in the range between 61.48m and 63.14m.

“I felt really powerful, I felt really, really good,” said Samuels.

“My arm felt wicked on one of them but it just didn’t happen.

“I guess it was just the rhythm and the timing that was out and then you try and whack it and then they don’t go that far.”

The gold medal went to Cuba’s Denia Caballero, who opened the final with a huge throw of 69.28m and was never headed.

Defending champion Sandra Perkovic of Croatia (67.39m) was second and Germany’s Nadine Muller (65.53m) was third.

Anneliese Rubie ran the second-fastest 400m time of her life but was eliminated in the women’s 400m semi-finals.

A day after smashing her PB with a run of 51.69 in the heats, the 23-year-old Rubie clocked 52.04 in the first of three semi-finals.

-AAP